- Democrat candidate for mayor of Houston
- Bagman for terrorists
Also, here's the TRUTH about Terrorist Issam Fares in his own words:
November 10, 2001 Saturday - AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE
Beirut calls on US to remove Hezbollah from terrorism list
Lebanon called on Washington Saturday to remove Hezbollah from its terrorist list, arguing that the radical Muslim group was resisting Israel's occupation of Lebanese land and never harmed US interests.
Deputy Prime Minister Issam Fares also criticized US White House spokesman Ari Fleischer for saying on Friday that Lebanon's "neutrality is not an acceptable position."
Fleischer said "you can't, on the one hand, condemn the al-Qaeda and hug the Hezbollah or hug the Hamas." Al-Qaeda is the network of Osama bin Laden and the prime suspect in the September 11 terror attacks on the United States. Hamas is a radical Palestinian group that regularly carries out attacks on Israeli targets.
Fares, a long-time friend of US George W. Bush and his father, as well as of Secretary of State Colin Powell, said "the Lebanese official position toward Hezbollah, which has popular backing, cannot be doubted and cannot be called 'neutral' or 'unacceptable.'
"Liberating the land cannot be considered a neutral position," he said.
"It is a mistake to make a comparison between the al-Qaeda network ... which Lebanon has condemned, and Hezbollah, which Lebanon considers a resistance party fighting the Israeli occupation.
"This is a mistake that cannot be accepted, because Hezbollah was behind the liberation of the parts of southern Lebanon that Israel had occupied for 22 years, during which (Israel) refused to implement UN Security Council Resolution 425."
That resolution called for Israel to withdraw from Lebanese territory occupied following its invasion of the country in 1978.
"Hezbollah did not carry out any resistance operation against American interests in Lebanon or abroad and did not target civilians in its resistance activities as happened on September 11 at the World Trade Center," he said.
Fares reminded Bush that "this issue is very delicate and sensitive in Lebanon."
However, he asserted "Lebanon's readiness to counter terrorism, whether at the information level or concerning the freezing of financial assets of terrorist organisations if they are found in Lebanese banks.
"The concerned ministries in Lebanon are currently preparing answers to the questions (about terrorist suspects) received a few weeks ago by the foreign ministry from the United Nations Security Council committee," he said.
Beirut officially rejected this week a US request to freeze the assets of Hezbollah, which continues to carry out armed operations against the disputed Shebaa Farms area, captured by Israel from Syria in 1967 and now claimed by Lebanon.
Hezbollah and a number of Palestinian organisations are on a blacklist published by Washington on November 2, adding to 66 groups and individuals on two earlier lists whose global assets should be frozen.
Our most recent poll for the runoff had White up 58-40. Turner's voters (the African-American bloc) are going overwhelmingly for White, as we predicted in our final poll for the 11/4 election.
Sanchez has Hispanics, Republicans, and Conservatives, but that's not quite enough in Houston against a candidate with White who has broad appeal. Sanchez's consultants must be advising him to go negative, which is the usual strategy in situations like this, but only a good one if the negative ads have real substance. White's flaws are apparently not easily reduced to soundbites, or else Sanchez lacks money or lacks PR expertise. (Since this Hezbollah innuendo, the explanation that Sanchez is above "going negative" has been rendered inoperative....)